Election fallout: 'New' legislature has same old faces

EXCEPTION PROVES THE RULE Of the six People First Party lawmakers who ran under the KMT banner, only one, Ko-Shu-min, failed in his bid to be re-elected

By Huang Wei-chu / STAFF REPORTER

Despite the fact that 69 out of 160 serving legislators failed to retain their seats in the next legislature in Saturday's election, more than 80 percent of the 113-member new legislature will be made up of familiar faces.

Apart from the 69 lawmakers who failed in their re-election attempts, another 57 decided not to run, making a total of 126 lawmakers that will be departing the legislature.

However, since 91 serving legislators won re-election and three of the new legislators -- the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)'s Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) and Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) -- have served as lawmakers at some point in the past, more than 80 percent of the new legislature will be comprised of "old faces."

Among those successfully re-elected, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳) of Hsinchu County -- who secured a fourth term -- received the highest number of votes with 127,892.

Among the casualties were senior lawmakers from across party lines.

These included Tainan County KMT legislator Hung Yu-chin (洪玉欽), who had already served eight terms; the People First Party's Shen Chih-hwei (沈智慧) from Taichung City, who had served six terms; and five-timers Lee Sen-zong (李顯榮) and Chao Yung-ching (趙永清) of the DPP -- both of Taipei County -- and the KMT's Ho Jyh-huei (何智輝) of Miaoli County.

The most senior DPP Legislator, six-time legislator Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌) also lost his seat because he was ranked fifteenth on the party's at-large list.

The DPP only secured 14 at-large seats. Four-time KMT Legislator Hsu Shu-po (許舒博), who ranked twenty-first on the KMT's at-large list, suffered the same fate and just missed out on a seat.

Most of the pan-green camp lawmakers who switched party affiliation ahead of the election lost, with legislators Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙), Huang Chung-yung (黃宗源) and Ho Min-hao (何敏豪) -- who jumped ship from the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) to the DPP -- all failing in their re-election bids.

Lee Sen-zong (李顯榮), who left the KMT to join the DPP, also suffered defeat.

On the other hand, only one of the six People First Party (PFP) lawmakers who ran under the KMT banner, Ko Shu-min (柯淑敏), lost out in their re-election bid.

Among the 60 DPP lawmakers seeking re-election, 41 -- including 35 in the district elections and six on the at-large list -- failed. As for the PFP, two of its three lawmakers seeking re-election failed, while all three of the TSU's re-election seekers lost.

For the KMT, only 13 out of 81 lawmakers seeking re-election were unsuccessful.

All parties that failed to obtain 5 percent of votes cast -- all of them except for the KMT and DPP -- are unable to recommend candidates for presidential and vice presidential elections. additional reporting by maggie lu

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